My near-snug experience

Since I was 16, I've been getting various ear piercings. No one in my family or immediate circle of friends has more than two piercings or one tattoo, so I began to get curious about body mod in high school. Over the last two or so years I have gotten seven different ear piercings, my latest being my right snug.

I got my snug done two weeks ago, when I went with a friend to get her lip pierced--a new piercing and tattoo parlor close to campus was running a special and I had heard good things about the place. When my friend asked me to go with her, I though I would try the new place out too. I already had gotten my helix, anti-tragus, and five lobe piercings (2 of them gauged) done. They were all relatively painless and had healed fine, so I wasn't too hesitant to get my snug done next.

My piercer was extremely well-educated and heavily pierced, scarified, and inked. I felt comfortable with him and watched him sterilize everything scrupulously. He has been piercing for over ten years on himself and professionally--he is definitely experienced in body modification. I decided to get my piercing done before my friend, so I would not get nervous by watching her squirm on the table.

After my piercer put on gloves and got the needles, earring, and gauze out,I hopped on the table.

I laid back: he cleaned my ear, marked the placement, cleaned it again, and then pierced my snug. It was that simple, and I would say the least painful cartilage piercing I have ever gotten.

Then came the hard part--my snug is pretty flat, so the piercer had some trouble getting the curved barbell in. It took about ten minutes, but the barbell finally went in and looked great. He cleaned it again and gave me a minute to rest before putting my friend on the table. Her lip piercing went smoothly, and she said that she experienced very little pain. I tipped the piercer and left content--I now had four piercings on each ear and they all looked great. Both me and my friend agreed that the piercer had great bedside manner and seemed very experienced. He was definitely the most talkative and intelligent piercer I have ever had.

For the first few days, everything was healing fine. I had minimal pain, minimal swelling, and could even rest my head on my right side. It looked awesome and I was super happy. I have seen maybe two people in my entire 12,000 person university with a snug piercing, so it felt good to have something different and fun.

Then, 4 days later came the horror. My ear began to swell to the point where it almost engulfed the outside ball. My ear was throbbing: it hurt like nothing I had experienced before. It got to the point of me not being able to sleep. That night, I went to the ER and got it removed--I tried to avoid it, but the pain was too much to handle. Two doctors did the procedure-- each doctor took one ball and pulled with pliers--it was awful (and I have a decent pain tolerance AND was on intense pain meds). It bled and discharged a little clear pus, but nothing too gross.My ear only felt slightly better after removing the bar, and they said to come back if it got worse. I was knocked out by the pain meds and woke up the next morning groggy, but able to go to class.

The next day, it hurt to even breathe the swelling was so great, so I went back to the ER. I was diagnosed with cellulitis and admitted to the hospital for about 30 hours to get intravenous antibiotics and painkillers. Right smack in the middle of finals too. My body does not take well to medication, so I felt like death. Despite being tired and nauseous for about 5 days, my ear healed fine after about two days with no scarring or abnormal bumps.

I emailed my piercer to tell him about what had happened to me. It took him a while to get back to me, but once he did he apologized for any discomfort I was in. He graciously offered to re-pierce my snug with a longer bar or do any other cartilage piercing free of charge when I am ready.

The guy was great--but I'm a little hesitant to go back to the place and/or get my snug re-done. I doubt to intense infection was his fault, but it might have had something to do with the hole being exposed to bacteria for about ten minutes. while he tried to get the earring in. I'm going to take a month or two and decide.

Details

submitted by: Anonymouson: 27 Jan. 2013in
Snug Piercing

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Comments (1)

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